Obama Becomes the First U.S. President to Write Code

January 13, 2015 - 2 minutes read

U.S. President Barack Obama became the first sitting chief executive in American history to write computer code, when he put together several lines of Javascript during a recent Hour of Code session. The Hour of Code program, an educational initiative supported by many of the world’s leading technology companies, is designed to “demystify” the computer coding process through hour-long tutorials. The tutorials teach students the basics of coding, providing them with the foundation to learn more if it piques their interest.

During his session, Obama put together a short piece of code that created the shape of a square on the computer screen. While his efforts were far from advanced, they did bring a great deal of publicity to the Hour of Code initiative. Currently, the Hour of Code program is building towards a stated goal of reaching 100 million students around the world. Workshops are available at the elementary school, middle school and high school levels.

The program isn’t intended to turn a newbie into an iPhone app developer overnight. Rather, it simply addresses the widespread perception that computer code is insurmountably difficult to learn, and is something meant only for genius-level math and science wizards. The Hour of Code program’s main mandate is that anyone is capable of learning how to code.

Chicago iPhone app development, and mobile software development the world over, relies on new generations of programmers bringing creative and innovative ideas to the industry. If you’re a software professional looking to contribute to your community, check out the Hour of Code program to see if there are any available spaces for you to volunteer your time and expertise for the benefit of students.